Halloween in bed

Instead of walking to the Cailleach’s shrine, I spent the day in bed. The onset of a seasonal bug has sent me scurrying under the blankets again rather than out onto the hill. Instead I resolve to spend the day researching ancient pre-plastic preparations for winter and the dark. I discover the story of Margaret Fay Shaw who came from Pittsburgh to learn Gaelic song in the 1930’s. She and her husband John Lorne Campbell spent their lives documenting the culture of the Hebrides.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000lcbp

The guising masks worn on S Uist were the empty skins of sheeps’ heads. The faces hung like bags on the face. It must have been a smelly business.